STELLER SEA LIONS
Stellers are a large northern species of sea lion, or “eared seals”, whose males can weigh more than a tonne. Their rookeries on Moneron are large and noisy, with a very distinctive smell spreading hundreds of meters. Basically, this is an island of sea lions. In fact, that’s how Moneron was called in translation from the language of the Ainu, the first ancient inhabitants of the islands.
At the rookery, sea lions growl as they see our boat and clumsily wobble from flipper to flipper. But everything is different underwater – here they are fast, graceful and agile. Now it’s us who are out of our element and suddenly object of interest – strange men with weird things on their back arouse great curiosity in sea lions. Cautious divers would say this interest is too intense, and I would say to them this: I’ve had the pleasure of diving in many different places all around the world, and in my opinion there is honestly nothing better than diving with Steller sea lions.
